Obama Signs Historic Health Care Bill: 'It Is The Law of The Land'

March 23, 2010

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The Senate still has to pass the package of "fixes" that were made by Obama and the House of Representatives. The Senate Democratic leadership assured House members that they had the 51 votes needed to pass the reconciliation bill, but they are also gearing up for a spate of procedural face-offs with Republicans. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, introduced bills Monday to repeal the health care bill, and GOP lawmakers are vowing to fight the bill tooth and nail.

Later this week, the president will return to the stump in Iowa to explain to the public how changes in the health care system will affect them.

The White House picked Iowa City because in 2007, then-Sen. Obama delivered his first major speech on health care reform as a presidential candidate at the University of Iowa.

The Congressional Budget Office predicted the bill would cost $938 billion -- mainly through a mix of tax increases and reduction in Medicare spending -- and would reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion in the first 10 years. The health care bill would extend insurance to 32 million more Americans.

Some components of the health care bill will take effect right away, including helping older Americans pay for prescription drugs and preventing insurance companies from denying coverage to children based on pre-existing conditions. There will also be tax credits for small businesses to help them cover insurance costs for their employees. Others, such as the individual mandate and more stringent regulations on insurance companies barring them from placing lifetime caps on coverage, or denying adults based on pre-existing conditions, won't take effect until 2014.

Americans' views on health care overhaul are mixed, depending largely on which poll one is looking at. In a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday, 58 percent of those polled said they disapprove of the way Obama handled the health care policy. A CBS News poll also released Monday found that 57 percent of Americans thought Democrats were trying to pass the health care bill because of political reasons, and 61 percent said Republicans were trying to stop it for that same reason.

A poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation Friday and conducted in March, showed a more mixed opinion amond Americans. It found that 46 percent supported the legislation while 42 percent opposed it.

The health care bill did not get one single Republican vote in either the House or the Senate. Even though the bill is now law, Republicans are still fighting back with promises of lawsuits.

Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty charged on "GMA" today that the individual mandate is an "unprecedented overreach by the federal government forcing individual citizens to buy a good or a service for no other reason than they happen to be alive or a person."

Pawlenty said he sent a letter to Minnesota's Democratic attorney general arguing against the constitutionality of the mandate.

"They've taken it to this big, federalized, bureaucratic, government-run, kind of nanny nation approach," Pawlenty said. "I don't think defending the Constitution and individual's rights under the Constitution, and the relationship between states and the federal government under the Constitution is a frivolous matter."